The Audacity of Whiteness

The audacity of whiteness never ceases to amaze me. Some make the most obvious racial statements and then say, gee I’m sorry is my privilege showing. Well duh, of course it is and you damn well know it. If it were not so tragic I could be amused by the constant apologizing for racial commentary, when the clear intent was to be racial in the first place. Do yourself a favour and stop with the false apologies it only compounds upon the issue.

As a child most people are taught to think before they speak, but somehow, for some reason, when it comes to discussing bodies of colour, white people regularly experience temporary amnesia. Of course it is assumed that POC will magnanimously turn the other cheek eagerly awaiting the next slap. Why else do we exist but to take the sharp barbs and daily humiliations.

If you can’t get a job some Latino immigrant stole it from you. If you cannot get into the college you want, some African American stole your spot due to affirmative action; or some “super smart” Asian who has no life but to study unfairly outworked you. Are you falsely reporting a crime? Of course blame the black man, everyone knows they’re all criminals anyway. Want some land to pollute, find the nearest Native American, break yet another treaty and wrap it in small pox blankets smothered in their blood. Despite all of the privileges that white bodies are able to marshal if the slightest problem occurs it is always the fault of the body of colour. We’re all equal until a white person feels disenfranchised. I know the drill all to well.

That POC exist without power relative to whites in western society is certainly not something that is worthy of serious consideration. Privilege must be maintained at all cost. If at any point a white person has found said privilege to be mitigated by class, gender, sexuality, or ability the problem is not the system which creates a hierarchy of bodies it is the uppity brown bodies of the world.

Of course I can certainly see how fuelling wars in Africa could be beneficial to a small group of people and since no white people are generally harmed in the process no foul right? Here is another thought…why should western governments be blamed for neo-colonialism. Is it the fault of white run western governments that there are no people left to conquer? How about those hot tamales? South America makes an excellent playground and if Latina women are permanently damaged from the rape tourism that regularly occurs at least it is a way to halt our dangerous trend of Malthusian living.

In the generous post racial world in which we live whites continues to feel entitled to their anger at the minimal loss of privilege that they have experienced, yet when a WOC rightly speaks out about issues effecting our lives our anger is somehow overly aggressive or uncalled for. How dare we express even the slightest angst that we continue to remain at the bottom of the social and economic pyramid when white people have so generously given a few of us the opportunity to rise above poverty. See look at that one referential black over there, she isn’t angry, you just have a chip on your shoulder. I swear I know why black people live shorter lives…we are literally stressed to death.

Daily living within the social delusion of whiteness, refusing to sip the kool aid and internalize racism has made me a problematic body. It may be gauche to publicly say nigger bitch but really it is not necessary when every action reifies the label. I read body language just like anyone else and the defensiveness and the hatred are obvious. Excuses are made and explanations are proffered but essentially nothing changes because white people cannot move beyond saying, oh I didn’t know that was racism, or that really was not my intent. For a group of people who want to run the world you really do fuck up a lot.